Statistics show that falling down is the most likely cause of accidental death to people over sixty five years old, and rated as the second leading cause of accidental death in Taiwan. Other domestic and foreign research reports show that the probability of falling down occurring to the elderly is ranged from 15% to 40% per day, and increases with age. As Taiwan is gradually stepping into an aging society, the population ratio of the elderly dramatically increases. Hence how to prevent older people from accidentally falling down to risk their lives becomes an important issue demanding high attention.
An R.O.C. patent Publication No. 200919382 entitled “Fall-down detection care system equipped with multi-frame image processing function” includes multiple sets of video cameras installed in different locations and having various pre-recorded fall-down image models. Through comparing images captured by the video cameras with the pre-recorded fall-down image models, a fall-down alarm is set off when the currently recorded image is similar to the pre-recorded ones. However, video camera is expensive, and multiple sets of video cameras are even more costly in practice. Moreover, monitoring through video cameras makes people feel uncomfortable and stressed under surveillance, and, as a result, raises the concern of infringing people's privacy.
Another R.O.C. patent Publication No. 200912814 entitled “Attached movable detection apparatus” discloses a wrist-watch type detection apparatus to perform the vibration detection via acceleration and direction detection and, in turn, determine if a falling-down event happens to further set off an alarm, arousing the nearby people for necessary rescuing procedures, and/or to send emergency signals wirelessly to an rescuing institution. Such a wearable solution costs less compared to the multi-camera system and can be used anywhere, even outdoors. However, the watch-type device might be triggered by inadvertent shaking of the users themselves or accidental impact of external forces. As a result, it may very likely set off the alarm erroneously.